Global Drifter Program

Dataset Name	Sensor	Make	Spatial Resolution	Temporal Resolution	Start Date	End Date
Global Drifter Program		Observation	Irregular	Six Hours	1979-02-15 06:00:00	2019-08-07 06:00:00

Dataset Description

The Global Drifter Program is a multi-decadal oceanography survey of sea surface temperature and ocean current data taken from a network of autonomous drifting floats. The dataset spans a 40-year time range with coverage of the global ocean. Each drifter records SST and speed along with zonal and meridional components of velocity. Uncertainty values in sst and velocity components are also included. Each drifter is comprised of a surface buoy attached to a sub-surface float or ‘drogue’. The drogue ensures that surface currents, rather than wind drive the buoy’s direction.

CMAP contains over 37 million records and 24,000 unique drifter ID’s from this project. Each drifter relays data every six hours via satellite. Data was acquired via the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Atlantic Oceanography and Meteorological Laboratory’s FTP site. The specific datasets ingested into CMAP are: buoydata_1_5000.dat.gz, buoydata_5001_10000.dat.gz, buoydata_10001_15000.dat.gz,buoydata_15001_jun19.dat.gz

Table of Variables

Data Source

Data provided by: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Atlantic Oceanography and Meteorological Laboratory - https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/gdp/index.php

How to Acknowledge

Lumpkin, Rick; Centurioni, Luca (2019). Global Drifter Program quality-controlled 6-hour interpolated data from ocean surface drifting buoys. [buoydata_1_5000,buoydata_5001_10000,buoydata_10001_15000,buoydata_15001_jun19]. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset.

https://doi.org/10.25921/7ntx-z961. Accessed [10-25-2019].

Version History

Data accessed on: 10-25-2019